


You Are A Hero

by princessPooka



Series: Gemstone AU [1]
Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cole is Gay, Everything else is pretty strictly canon, F/M, Gemstoneshipping, M/M, Nya and Plundar share a moment, Post-Season/Series 13, Season/Series 13 Spoilers, there's a kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:35:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26227279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princessPooka/pseuds/princessPooka
Summary: Plundar and Adam have joined the ninja on the Destiny's Bounty for the foreseeable future. Everyone is having a bit of a hard time adjusting, and the other Ninja are a bit wary of their new companion. Luckily, they encounter a road block that seems to be right up Plundar's alley.A commissioned work written by @kjminzner on Twitter.
Relationships: Cole (Ninjago)/Plundar (Ninjago), Nya/Jay Walker
Series: Gemstone AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1904887
Comments: 3
Kudos: 47





	You Are A Hero

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I didn't write this! I commissioned my dear friend KJ (https://twitter.com/kjminzner) to write it! I only came up with the AU. 
> 
> I'm currently writing the very beginning/foundation of this AU, but here's just a little taste of how the dynamic works. I'm really excited about it-- this AU is so important to me!
> 
> Minor spoilers for season 13, nothing too serious.

On the deck of the Destiny's Bounty 2.0, six ninja in varying degrees of discomfort sat watching a horse-sized spider chow down on a giant pile of leftovers and garbage. The noise was disturbing, there was no denying it. Even Cole, who had gotten used to being around Adam the giant spider over the past few days, still felt a little queasy watching him eat. 

Jay, who was watching the whole ordeal from the crow's nest, finally shouted in frustration. "This noise is driving me CRAZY! Can't he eat any quieter?" 

Zane, who was sitting at the bow of the ship, chimed in. “Actually, the decibel reading of the noise Adam is making is quite low. It appears he is trying to be polite." Adam let out a loud snarl, and Zane shuddered. “Though, that doesn't necessarily make it any less disturbing," he added. 

"Cole, where's Plundar?" Kai asked. “Shouldn't he be the one feeding Adam?" 

Cole tossed another sandwich onto the garbage pile. "I'm just trying to be nice and do something for him," he said, reaching up to scratch Adam on the head. “Who's a good boy? Are you a good boy?" Adam chittered happily. Cole turned back to look at the rest of the ninja and was surprised to see the judgemental expressions staring back at him. 

"What?” Cole asked defensively. "He's a good boy!" Cole saw Lloyd roll his eyes, which frankly hurt his feelings a little bit. 

From behind the wheel on the upper deck, Master Wu poked his head up to comment on the scene. “Cole, I believe that the ninja are trying to tell you that Plundar should be taking care of his own spider, hmm?" 

"Oh, so you're upset with Plundar now?" Cole said, crossing his arms. 

“No one is saying that, Cole,” Nya said, walking up to Cole and putting a hand on his shoulder. 

“Yeah, it's just that no one's seen Plundar above deck for a few days," Kai explained. “It feels like he's been avoiding us." 

Cole sighed. “I'll go talk to him," he said, making his way to the stairs that went below deck. “Someone has to finish feeding Adam though!" 

"NOT IT!" all the ninja yelled, pointer fingers flying to their nose. They all turned to look at Master Wu, the only one left with his nose uncovered. 

"Why are you all looking at me?" he said. “Is this some sort of game?" 

As the ninja began arguing passionately over who would have to take on spider-feeding duties, Cole made his way down to the main cabin. The sunlight streaming through the doorway caused his vision to go a bit fuzzy, so he closed the hatch door and waited for his eyes to get used to the dark. The only light in the room came from a blue-green glowing mushroom on a low table in the sitting area. The mushroom had been a gift from Fungus, and was one of the only things Plundar had brought with him on the ship aside from his spider. 

Around the table was a semicircle of couches, with the largest couch in the center facing away from where Cole stood. As his sight adjusted, Cole could see Plundar sitting on this couch with his back to him, his hood pulled up. 

Plundar had apparently heard Cole approaching, because he turned around and started talking before Cole even cleared the last step. “So, they wanna kick me out, ah?" he said. It was hard to read his expression through the mask. Cole couldn't tell if he was joking or genuinely upset. 

"What?" Cole said, surprised. “No, no one wants to kick you out! Where'd you even get that idea?" 

“Aw, don't play dumb with me, Cole mine," Plundar said, slumping back into his seat and staring at the wall. “I'm a thief, remember? I've done a lotta spyin' in my day. At this point it's kinda impossible for me to not eavesdrop.” 

Cole sat down next to Plundar and put an arm around him. “Well, if you actually heard what we were saying, you'd know none of the ninja want to kick you out.” 

“Yeah, but they don't like me," Plundar said, leaning into Cole's shoulder. “Face it, Cole, I'm nothin' like you guys. You're all strong, tough, magic ninja type people. I don't really know what I'm doin' here."

Plundar thought for a moment, and then pushed himself up and away out of Cole's arms. “I don't even know what I'm doin' here," he said pointing to Cole and then back at himself. “Like, what is this Cole? What the hell are we?" 

Cole shrugged, blushing a little. “I don't know," he admitted. “I like what our relationship was when we were at Rock Bottom. Can't we just keep doing that?" 

Plundar stood up and started pacing. Cole noticed he had two small rocks in one hand and was rubbing them together nervously. He had thrown away his dice while they were escaping Rock Bottom, but Cole suspected old habits were hard to break. 

“Yeah, sure, that was nice, Cole," Plundar said, “But that's when you were stuck at the bottom of a cave with only five people. That was my world. This ninja world? It's nothin' like that. I don't belong here.” Frustrated, Plundar tossed the rocks into the back corner of the room and sat down in a huff. 

Gently, Cole pulled down Plundar's hood and started running his fingers through his hair. “You can't give up that easily," he said. “You haven't even gone up above deck to talk to the rest of them. They barely know you." 

"I don't like goin' up above deck," Plundar said, flopping around on the couch and situating himself in an upside-down position. "It's too bright and it hurts my eyes. And I got sunburnt last time." 

Cole flipped around and copied Plundar's position so they were both staring up at the ceiling. “I think you'd like them if you gave them a chance," Cole said. “And they'd like you." 

"I ‘preciate that, rock star," Plundar responded, “but I don't need to get up there any time soon." 

Suddenly, Nya burst through the hatch door. “Guys! You gotta get up here now!" she yelled. 

“You were saying?” Cole said, launching himself up over the back of the couch and landing perfectly on his feet. 

“Very nice,” Plundar commented, “But can you do this?" On the word this, Plundar launched himself into a double backflip over the couch, landing in a roll and coming to a stop right at the bottom of the stairs. 

"Showoff," Cole said, elbowing him. 

Nya rolled her eyes. “If you two are finished with your circus act,” she said, "we have a serious matter at hand." 

"What kind of serious matter?" Cole asked. "You'll just have to see for yourself,” Nya said. 

\---

Plundar squinted as he stared out over the horizon. It was still hard to make out shapes in the bright light, but he was starting to get better at discerning color and size. Either way, it wasn't hard to see what the ninja were looking at. Extending from a mass of green that Plundar could only assume were trees, a thick, gray column rose up into the sky. Smoke. 

"You pulled us up above deck for a forest fire?" Plundar asked. Cole shot him a look that Plundar took to mean “Don't be rude." 

"It's not a forest fire," Kai explained, “I would feel stronger in my powers if it was. I think it's coming from a chimney." 

Zane stared out in the direction of the smoke, using his binocular vision. “Perhaps it will interest you all to note that this location--" 

"It's my old treehouse," Lloyd interrupted. “I'd know that forest anywhere." 

"Wait, didn't we destroy that place?" Jay asked. 

"Why would you destroy a perfectly good treehouse?” Plundar asked, utterly confused. 

"Oh yeah, that was back when you were trying to raise an army of Serpentine, wasn't it?" Cole said. “Good times, good times." Lloyd hid his face in his hands, cringing with embarrassment. 

"You were doin' what?" Plundar asked, eyes wide. 

"This was when Lloyd was trying to become like his father Lord Garmadon," Master Wu commented. 

"What the fuck is a Garmadon?" Plundar asked, staring at Lloyd in bewilderment. At this point Lloyd looked like he wanted to curl up under a table and die. 

"We should probably go check it out," Kai said. “If it's a former evil lair, there's a lot of evil people who would want to renovate it." 

"You didn't tell me you had villain ninja on your team!" Plundar said to Cole. “That's the coolest shit I've heard all day!" 

"Please stop talking," Lloyd said, now turning about the same color as his clothes. 

The crew decided to land Destiny's Bounty a few miles away from the treehouse. “That way, whatever enemies may be waiting for us won't see us coming, and we can have the element of surprise," Zane explained. 

"You want a surprise?" Plundar said, flourishing a small dagger. “Surprise is my middle name." 

"Your middle name is Eugene," Cole said, rolling his eyes. Plundar fell to the ground, pantomiming as if he had just been shot in the heart. “I do agree with the sentiment, though,” Cole continued. “The team going through the forest is going to have to be as sneaky as possible, and Plundar is the sneakiest one here." 

“Are you sure about that, Cole?" Kai asked as he started packing up his gear. “I mean... who's going to stay behind on the ship and watch Adam?" Adam made cute puppy eyes as if to emphasize the point. 

“Master Wu, what do you think?" Cole asked. 

Just as Master Wu opened his mouth to speak, a thunderous collision caused the entire ship to shake. Plundar turned and saw that a cannonball had plowed through the side of the ship, and they were losing altitude fast. 

Another projectile was soaring through the sky at them. “Brace yourselves!" Zane yelled, and everyone ran to the nearest railing to grab hold. The impact threw them all in different directions, and the ship finally slammed head-on into a giant spruce tree and came careening to the ground. 

\---

Plundar woke up with a headache and sticks in his hair. He took a second to brush himself off and readjust his mask and hood before standing up and taking in his surroundings. 

He was still on the deck of Destiny's Bounty, which had crashed to the ground but seemed to be in OK shape overall. Bits of the ship's hull were splintered here and there, but the damage all seemed fixable. The other ninja were scattered on the deck around him, but they all seemed to be getting up okay. 

But then, from up by the helm, Plundar heard a groan and a chattering noise. He rushed over to see what was the matter and found Adam making concerned and frightened noises. Master Wu was next to him on the ground, his ankle twisted at an unnatural angle. “Uh, help!" Plundar yelled over to the ninja. “Someone help!" 

Immediately, Cole rushed over to where Plundar was kneeling and helped Master Wu up into a kneeling position. “Are you alright, Master Wu?" Cole asked. 

“Ah, I'll be alright,” the old man responded. “I just twisted my ankle. I should be better in a few days." 

"I hate to say this, but I don't think we actually have a few days," Jay said nervously. 

"Jay's right,” Nya said. “Look." She pointed at one of the projectiles that had caused the ship to fall, which was now lodged into the hull. On the side of the cannonball was a strange engraved pattern. 

Zane took a step closer to the pattern to examine it. “If I am correct," he said, “This pattern indicates that this cannonball belongs to the Hypnobrai.” 

"Oh, come on!" Lloyd said, kicking a post in anger. “We have to deal with those assholes again?" 

“And exactly whose fault is it that the Hypnobrai were awoken in the first place?" Nya said, staring directly at Lloyd. In response, Lloyd pulled up his hood and cinched it so tight that no one could see his face through the fabric.

"We need to have someone stay here with Master Wu and the spider while the rest of us go investigate," Kai said, taking charge. 

"Wait, aren't you all magic ninja warriors?" Plundar asked. “Can't you just magic him back together?" 

Kai rolled his eyes. “No, we can't just 'magic him back together.' Don't be stupid.” 

Plundar, in a state of shock, turned to Cole with a complete "what the fuck” expression. Cole put a hand on Plundar's shoulder, silently telling him it would be ok. 

Cole then stood up and addressed the group. “I'll stay here with Master Wu. The rest of you sneak up to the camp and take out the Hypnobrai.” 

The group looked a bit uneasy. “Are you sure you don't want Plundar to stay?" Jay asked hesitantly. 

Plundar shuffled his feet. “I mean, I don't mind stayin' back," he said. 

Cole shook his head. “Like I said, you need maximum stealth for this mission. You're taking Plundar with you, and that's that. Plus, it'll give you all a chance to get to know each other." 

Both Kai and Plundar gave Cole a desperate look, begging him to change his mind. Instead, Cole just winked at Plundar and turned back to Master Wu. 

\---

The ninja (and guest) weren't too far from the treehouse base, but that didn't mean the journey wasn't difficult. There were no paths in this stretch of the forest, and the ground was soft and covered in roots and rocks. The ninja had to step carefully to avoid tripping on anything, which only got more frustrating as the hours ticked by. 

Plundar, on the other hand, was having a great time. For one thing, the thick foliage blocked out most of the sun, so he didn't have to squint to be able to see his way around. He had also found a fun new mode of transportation through the forest. Early on in the journey he had used his acrobatic skills to scale a vine-covered tree, and was now swinging from vine to vine over the ground and was able to stay several yards ahead of the rest of the group. Every so often he would show off with an elaborate flip or dive, never quite touching the ground. 

This elaborate circus show was starting to get on Kai's nerves. “Can't you slow down?" he called up to Plundar. 

"Can't you keep up?" Plundar called back. “I thought you were the world's most powerful ninja!" 

Kai clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. Zane stumbled up next to him and gave him a reassuring look. “I advise that you stay calm," he whispered, “if he is really Cole's boyfriend we should at least try to get along with him." The two looked up to see Plundar dangling upside down from a vine making monkey noises at them. “As difficult as that may be," Zane continued. 

"Uh, guys?" Jay interrupted. “Have you noticed that we stopped moving forward?" 

Kai and Zane looked down and saw that the two of them, along with Jay, truly were no longer moving forward: they were sinking down into the swampy ground. Kai turned back to yell at Nya. “Nya! Don't-" But before he could finish, Nya had already stepped into the swamp as well. 

"Oh my god,” Nya said, “Did we seriously get stuck in quicksand? That's such a rookie mistake!" 

"Don't worry, I'll save you!" Lloyd called out, running directly towards them. 

“No, Lloyd, don't!" Jay yelled, but it was too late. 

Lloyd started sinking with the rest of them. “Hmm," he said, “This wasn't very well thought out." 

From his perch in the trees, Plundar was able to maintain an outward sense of calm, but on the inside he was panicking. All of the ninja were in danger, and it was up to him to help now. He scanned the area looking for anything wide and flat that he could use to disperse the ninja's weight and keep them from sinking. 

"Hey, are you just gonna sit there?” Kai yelled up to him. “We could use some help here!" 

“Don't you worry, hotcake, I have a plan," Plundar assured him. Finally, his eyes landed on a long strip of bark that had fallen from one of the thicker trees. Bingo. 

Plundar swung down to firm ground and started pushing the bark towards the swamp. "Wait until this beauty's all the way across," he instructed the ninja, “And then get on real slow-like.” 

The ninja did just as he said, with Nya and Lloyd being the first to climb onto the bark, making horrible schlorping noises as they peeled themselves out of the mud. They were followed by Jay, Zane, and finally Kai, who pulled themselves along after Nya as she gently scooted her way across the bark and onto the firm dirt and rock. 

"We did it!" Jay yelled as he jumped off the bark. "That was awesome, Plundar!" He threw up his hand for a high five, and Plundar, a little surprised, reciprocated. 

Kai brushed some of the mud and debris off his clothes. “Yeah, that was actually smart thinking," he said, a little hesitantly. “Good job, Plundar." 

Plundar was glad he still had his mask on, because he was pretty sure he was blushing underneath. “D'aww, it was nothin'," he said. “Now, we should get shakin' a leg if we want to get the jump on those snake boys." 

"Yes, but we should be careful as to avoid further encounters with unstable terrain," Zane noted. 

Plundar held out a handful of vines. “I've got just the thing," he said, raising his eyebrows mischievously. 

\---

It only took the ninja about twenty minutes of practice time to get the feel for Plundar's new vine-based transportation system. Before long, they were all swinging in time in neat rows, with Kai and Zane at the front, Jay and Lloyd in the middle, and Nya and Plundar at the rear. 

As they were swinging, Plundar noticed that Nya was wearing a bright, shiny necklace that bounced against her neck with each swing. Upon closer examination, Plundar saw that it was one half of a yin-yang necklace. 

Plundar stared forward at the back of Jay's head in surprise. He had heard Cole mention that Jay and Nya were together, but he had thought the nature of their relationship was casual. Plundar had assumed that the stressful nature of a ninja's life wouldn't allow for serious commitment like that. 

“Soooo... you and Jay been together a while?" Plundar asked Nya. 

"Oh yeah,” Nya responded. “We started going out before I was even a ninja." 

"So was Jay a ninja and you weren't?” Nya nodded. “How'd that work out?" Plundar asked. There was some hesitation in his voice. "Was it... hard? To be with a ninja when you weren't one?" 

Nya smiled knowingly. “Well sure, at first,” she said. "I can remember in the beginning I would get really nervous whenever he went on a dangerous mission, and sometimes I didn't know whether he'd come back." 

“How'd you stop worrying?" 

Nya thought for a moment. “I'm not sure, really. I think I just learned more about what being a ninja was like, and I realized Jay was capable of taking care of himself. And I realized that I could keep up with the boys just fine," she added, winking. “I guess I'm just more in love than I am in fear.” 

"That sounds real nice," Plundar said, "real real nice." Nya smiled. 

“Are you two talking about me back there?" Jay interrupted, looking over his shoulder as they swung. 

"Yeah, all horrible things,” Nya teased, sticking out her tongue at him. Plundar laughed. 

Jay flipped his grip on the vines and started swinging backwards, facing them. “You better watch out, then," he joked. “You don't wanna mess with the ninja who-" 

Suddenly, Jay was cut off by a loud rattling noise overhead, followed by a loud THUNK as a heavy metal net fell down from the canopy onto him. “AAAAAAAAAAA!” Jay screamed as he lost his grip on the vines and tumbled to the ground. 

"JAY!” Nya screamed. A second later, another net fell on top of her, pulling her down to the ground. 

Plundar felt his adrenaline spike as he looked up to the treetops. There, he saw a carefully rigged set of ropes holding up additional nets, which looked like they were ready to drop at any second. Sure enough, another net dropped down right then, and Plundar had to leap backwards and onto the ground to avoid being caught. 

More of the nets fell down in front of him, catching Lloyd, Zane, and Kai in their tangled fibers. The ninja yelled loudly and dropped down to the ground, unable to move under the weight of the metal. 

“Plundar! Help us!" Kai yelled. Plundar rushed over to his side, but something made him stop in his tracks. Through the trees, he could see several dark shapes approaching, humanoid but for their large, snake-like heads. The Hypnobrai. 

Plundar panicked. If he let the Hypnobrai see him, it would be all over. Making a split second decision, Plundar turned on his heels and ran away. 

“Where the hell are you going?” Kai yelled after him. "You coward!" 

"Kai, be quiet!” Nya shushed him. 

As Plundar rushed away and hid in the bushes, he could hear Kai muttering angrily. “I knew we shouldn't have trusted him.” 

\--

Plundar silently tailed the Hypnobrai as they marched their prisoners back to the treehouse base. He could hear the leader of the pack evil-monologuing to them as they walked. 

"I knew it wasssss only a matter of time before the wretched ninja sssssought me out," the tall Hypnobrai said. “My name hasssss been sung the world over, ssssso it's only natural you would find out about me." 

"We don't even know who the hell you are,” Lloyd spat at him. 

The Hypnobrai gasped with righteous indignation. "I can only asssssume you are trying to insssult me. Of courssssse you know my name issss Fangro the Unconquerable." 

"Nice to meet you Fangro," Jay said, “But we're actually super busy, so, it's time to go." 

On the word “go," the ninja seemed to know exactly what to do. Plundar watched as all five of them snapped out of their rope bindings at the same time and started fighting against their captors. They were incredibly in sync. 

The impressive acrobatics didn't last for long, however. After the past several days of fighting and adventuring at Rock Bottom, the crew was tired, and their attacks were weak. Jay ended up tripping over his own feet, and Zane took a punch to the forehead that seemed to force him into immediate shutdown. In a matter of minutes, the opposing Hypnobrai had subdued them all. 

Fangro scoffed. "Are these really the infamous ninja I've heard so much about? Pathetic.” Fangro turned away from them in disgust. "Take them to the supervisory chamber!" 

"It's called the Party Room," Lloyd corrected him through gritted teeth. He and the other ninja were hoisted up onto their feet and marched towards the treehouse into the room in question. 

Plundar followed at a safe distance and wondered to himself what the hell he was going to do about this. “Cole is still free, though," he realized. “I can get him to come to the rescue." 

Just as he was thinking this, however, another squad of Hypnobrai goons appeared from a forest path, leading along Cole and Master Wu, who were chained together. Master Wu was hobbling along on one leg, and Plundar could see the pain on his face. 

"We found the lassssst ninja and the old man," one of the Hypnobrai hissed. “Had to scare off a giant spider that crawled onto their ship, but we managed ok." 

"Excellent work, my friendssss," Fangro said. He walked up behind Cole and Master Wu and shoved them into the room with the rest of the ninja. He then walked in 

and slammed the door behind him, leaving Plundar alone in his forest hiding spot. 

"Shit shit shit shit shit," Plundar muttered to himself. He moved a bit deeper into the forest and started pacing back and forth nervously. "What the fuck do I do now? Come on, Plundar, think!” But he couldn't focus his mind. He was too busy feeling guilty about running away, and scared of what would happen to his friends if he didn't act fast. 

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Plundar caught sight of a door opening. Turning to get a closer look, he saw that two of the Hypnobrai soldiers were exiting a side room in the treehouse. They seemed to be engaged in an argument, and in the midst of it all forgot to close the door behind them. Plundar waited until they were far enough away, then snuck his way into the room and closed the door behind him. 

It looked to be a storage room, and it was filled wall to wall with cardboard boxes and clutter. A lot of it looked like children's toys and youth-size t-shirts, but there were also some swords and other serious-looking weapons strewn about. In the center of the room was a big box labelled “PRANK WEAPONS - HANDS OFF!” in blocky crayon. 

As Plundar took in his surroundings, he could feel a plan beginning to formulate in his brain. He opened the prank weapons box and looked inside. He chuckled to himself and rubbed his hands together. 

Time to get to work. 

\---

Inside the supervisory-chamber-slash-Party-Room, the ninja were being subjected to a mid-tier Evil Villain Monologue. Not the worst they had heard, but certainly not the best. 

“And that'sSSSSS when we disssscovered thisssss hideout,” Fangro said, slithering back and forth in front of them. “So then I started creating a plan to-" 

Cole knew how these speeches tended to go, so he focused his attention on scanning the room for any potential exits. Aside from Fangro, there were six other Hypnobrai in the room: two guards at the front door, two at the back door, and one by each of the side windows. In a normal situation, he and the rest of the ninja would be perfectly matched against these snakes, but this wasn't a normal situation. Everyone was exhausted from their past adventure, to the point where even regular Spinjitzu was too much for them. They needed another way out of this. 

Cole looked back at the... wait a second. Weren't there two guards at the front door before? Now there was only one. 

Suddenly, Cole watched what could only be described as a giant fish hook drop down from the ceiling, grab the remaining guard by the back of her uniform, and yank her up into the rafters. 

Cole followed the motion of the fish hook up to the ceiling, and was shocked to see Plundar tying up the guards in rope cocoons, like a spider catching flies. “What the fuck?" Cole started to say, before catching himself. 

Thankfully, Fangro failed to notice that anything was amiss. “Yes, I'm sure it comessssss asssss a shock to you ninja, but that'sssss jussssst the geniussssss of my plan..." he continued. 

Cole saw that Plundar had used up the last of his rope. With nothing left to tie up the other guards, Cole wondered what his plan was. Plundar noticed Cole staring at him and gave him a wink. He had this all under control. 

Like a trained tightrope walker, Plundar balanced on the rafters with ease and walked to the other side of the room, right above where the ninja were tied up. He waited for a moment when Fangro turned to the side, giving him a chance to drop down quietly behind the ninja. 

"It wassssn't hard to find you, of courssssse," Fangro was still rambling on. “And desssstroying your ship wassss jusssst the firssssst part of our plan..." 

Staying just out of sight, Plundar tiptoed up to Cole and untied the rope around his hands. Then, Cole felt Plundar press something hard and plastic into his hand. “Wait for my signal, rockstar," Plundar whispered, and then slid down the row to the next ninja, repeating the same actions for each one. 

Fangro finally seemed to be getting to the end of his monologue. "And that issss how we will take over the world!” he concluded. “Any quessssstions?" 

"Yeah," Plundar said, standing up from behind the ninja, “Why are you all wet?" 

Fangro was too shocked to say anything for a second. "Why am I... What?" 

"NOW!” Plundar yelled, and pulled out a giant water gun that he fired at Fangro. While the Hypnobrai stood there sputtering, all the ninja leapt to their feet and began using the weapons Plundar had handed them. Chaos ensued. 

Lloyd had a can of spray paint, which he used to effectively blind one of the guards before tossing him out a window. Jay had some sort of trick fan that emitted a terrible smell, which was great for keeping the other guards at bay while Nya fired a net gun at them and pinned them to the ground. Even Master Wu was able to join in with a rainbow bubble blower that kept the snakes distracted while Kai snapped them into plastic handcuffs. 

"You horrible ninja!!!" Fangro yelled, and began charging directly at Cole and Plundar. Cole looked down and saw that the weapon Plundar had handed him appeared to be a marble gun. Without a moment's hesitation, Cole pulled the trigger and covered the whole floor with marbles, causing Fangro to lose his balance and come tumbling to the ground. 

With all the Hypnobrai defeated, Cole walked over to Fangro and put his foot on his chest, pinning him down. It was a serious moment, but he couldn't help but feel kind of cool. 

"Well,” Cole said, “I'd say that escape went fang-tastic." 

"Nope, you ruined it," Plundar said, rolling his eyes. "You were almost cool." 

\---

After clearing out the few remaining snakes from the treehouse, Plundar had snuck away from the rest of the group to get some air. Now he was sitting on the roof of the treehouse, his back to the setting sun as he stared out into the dark sky. 

It wasn't long before he heard steps approaching behind him. “Hey," Cole said, sitting down next to him. “We found Adam. He's perfectly safe, just a little hungry." 

"Oh good," Plundar said, “I was worried." 

"Yeah, no, everyone's ok," Cole said. There was a beat of awkward silence. 

“Cole, I'm sorry. When the ninja got captured... I just ran away," Plundar said, tears starting to form in his eyes. "I'm not a hero like you guys. I'm just a thief. And a coward." 

Cole looked at him in bewilderment. “What are you talking about?” he asked. “You saved the day! We never would have beaten them without you." He reached over and touched Plundar's cheek, turning his head so they came face to face. “You are a hero. That's why I love you." 

Plundar felt the color rushing into his cheeks, and was once again thankful for the mask. “You do?" he asked. 

Cole pulled back and scratched the back of his head nervously. “Sorry, was that too much? I didn't... I just meant that like..." 

"No, no, it's fine!” Plundar interrupted. “I like it. I... love you too, I guess?" 

Cole's face lit up. “So..." he asked hesitantly, “What about us together then? Do you want to... give it a shot?" 

Before Plundar could answer, Jay burst onto the rooftop, followed by the rest of the ninja. "Who's ready for a post-battle rooftop PARTY?!” he yelled. 

Lloyd noticed Cole and Plundar sitting close together. “What's going on here?" he asked. 

"Cole just made me a business offer that I think I'm inclined to accept," Plundar answered, shooting a wink at Cole. Cole beamed from ear to ear. 

"Well, if you guys are done with that, you wanna come watch the sunset with us?" Kai asked. “It wouldn't be complete without all our friends," he said, looking at Plundar meaningfully. 

Plundar hesitated. “I... with the sun, I can't-" 

Cole interrupted. “Oh right! I almost forgot! I had Lloyd search through his old storage space here with me, and we found these for you.” He dug through his pockets and pulled out a pair of sunglasses. “Now you can see in the light no problem." 

Plundar smiled under his mask and put the glasses on. “How do I look?" he asked, finally turning to face the sunset. 

“Like a million bucks,” Cole said. Then, he leaned over and gave Plundar a quick peck on the cheek. 

"Was that a kiss?” Nya said, teasing. 

Plundar sat up a little straighter. “Nah, that was weaksauce," he said, “This is a kiss." He pulled down his mask and kissed Cole square on the lips. Cole was surprised, but just for a moment, and then started kissing back. 

"Woah, you have a face under there?" Jay interrupted. 

"Why did you think Plundar would not have a face?" Zane asked. 

"I mean, you're a robot," Jay explained, "I was just staying open for all possibilities.” 

As the rest of the ninja began debating the existence and probability of faceless people, Plundar leaned into Cole's arms, and the two of them happily watched the sunset together.


End file.
